Hi
I'm new posting to the forum but have lurking here for months getting as much info as possible before embarking on a loft conversion. Across all the forums the one thing I took on board was the need to communicate with neighbours, but I seem to have a neighbour who doesn't want to communicate at all and it's meant that the party wall process is taking way longer than necessary and i think will work out quite costly.
I have a terraced house and plan a straightforward loft conversion. I informed neighbours either side, call them A and B before I put in for building regs/ and permitted development requests to local council. Once council paperwork was approved I then spoke to neighbours A & B and advised them that I would be sending them party wall notices and if they wanted to see plans discuss anything then just let me know. Neighbour A has been fine, received notice, didn’t dissent and has taken a real interest in the project (in fact can't believe i haven't started building already).
Neighbour B started by telling me that I had my notice wrong as the "14 days reply or you have dissented" was wrong and his surveyor (who he had already engaged) told him so. That has been the start of my problems. Neighbour B and Surveyor B were adamant that Surveyor B would only work for neighbour B, which meant that I had to get my own surveyor.
I delayed starting the party wall agreement to accommodate surveyor B by 3 weeks. We are now 6 weeks further on (9 weeks on in total) and we are now at a standstill because surveyor B has gone on leave again until the end of this month. The only reason my surveyor knew about the leave was an out of office message when he replied to an email that was mid conversation. He tried immediately to call Surveyor B but got voicemail instructing callers to not to leave voicemail as these would not be picked up until the end of the month.
Also Surveyor B has refused to provide any indication of rates for their services, but in the meantime seems to be asking many questions that the party wall surveyor should be undertaking. The latest request (before surveyor B went on holiday) is that I should put scaffolding up so that he can climb it to inspect neighbour B roof.
Can I ask is it normal for the householder doing the work to have to erect scaffolding before the awarding of a party wall agreement?
In addition, if anyone has any ideas on how I can get neighbour B's surveyor to move a little faster i.e. drop the delaying tactics? I'm now wary of approaching neighbour B as he clearly wasn’t interested in what I had to say - in fact his words were that "he has boxes of documents relating to work his neighbour on the other side did previously and he has no interest in surveyor fees as he's not paying" hence me paying for 2 surveyors now.
My builder has pretty much told me that we if do not start by mid sept work will need to rescheduled for next year. Therefore, any ideas or advice would be much appreciated.
I'm new posting to the forum but have lurking here for months getting as much info as possible before embarking on a loft conversion. Across all the forums the one thing I took on board was the need to communicate with neighbours, but I seem to have a neighbour who doesn't want to communicate at all and it's meant that the party wall process is taking way longer than necessary and i think will work out quite costly.
I have a terraced house and plan a straightforward loft conversion. I informed neighbours either side, call them A and B before I put in for building regs/ and permitted development requests to local council. Once council paperwork was approved I then spoke to neighbours A & B and advised them that I would be sending them party wall notices and if they wanted to see plans discuss anything then just let me know. Neighbour A has been fine, received notice, didn’t dissent and has taken a real interest in the project (in fact can't believe i haven't started building already).
Neighbour B started by telling me that I had my notice wrong as the "14 days reply or you have dissented" was wrong and his surveyor (who he had already engaged) told him so. That has been the start of my problems. Neighbour B and Surveyor B were adamant that Surveyor B would only work for neighbour B, which meant that I had to get my own surveyor.
I delayed starting the party wall agreement to accommodate surveyor B by 3 weeks. We are now 6 weeks further on (9 weeks on in total) and we are now at a standstill because surveyor B has gone on leave again until the end of this month. The only reason my surveyor knew about the leave was an out of office message when he replied to an email that was mid conversation. He tried immediately to call Surveyor B but got voicemail instructing callers to not to leave voicemail as these would not be picked up until the end of the month.
Also Surveyor B has refused to provide any indication of rates for their services, but in the meantime seems to be asking many questions that the party wall surveyor should be undertaking. The latest request (before surveyor B went on holiday) is that I should put scaffolding up so that he can climb it to inspect neighbour B roof.
Can I ask is it normal for the householder doing the work to have to erect scaffolding before the awarding of a party wall agreement?
In addition, if anyone has any ideas on how I can get neighbour B's surveyor to move a little faster i.e. drop the delaying tactics? I'm now wary of approaching neighbour B as he clearly wasn’t interested in what I had to say - in fact his words were that "he has boxes of documents relating to work his neighbour on the other side did previously and he has no interest in surveyor fees as he's not paying" hence me paying for 2 surveyors now.
My builder has pretty much told me that we if do not start by mid sept work will need to rescheduled for next year. Therefore, any ideas or advice would be much appreciated.